Chapter 1: Chapter 1
"I don't like this book," said Viper Fox, looking down at the worn leather-bound tome. "It's too dark n'stormy. I need sunlight to read."
Viper was sitting under an umbrella in the meadow, one of many scattered across the green expanse. The breeze was cool and smelled of pine and salt, perfect for reading.The sky was a dark and stormy one, filled with black clouds that were moving quickly across the sky. It was the middle of the evening, and the shadows of the trees were lengthening. There was a fire pit in the middle of the meadow, ringed by stones and twined with ivy.The flames cast eerie shadows on the stones, but they provided just enough light to see by.
Viper turned the page, his eyes str ling across the words but his ears listening to the rustle of the pages. He stopped when he reached the bottom of the page, frowning. The handwriting was illegible, even to him.He flipped the page over, hoping for a new one, but the same thing happened. The handwriting was so bad that he could barely make it out and he was a spell caster, able to decipher almost any writing. "Who is this?" he murmured to himself, staring at the scribbles. "What do I care about this book? Why did it fall into my hands?What does it want from me?"
The answers to these questions would come later, when he was ready to face the book again. For now he was focused on the darkness that was drawing closer and closer, threatening to swallow him whole. His skin prickled, his goosebumps growing with each parsec that passed.The wind picked up, stirring the dark clouds around him, the scent of pine and salt filling the air. The sky was filled with black stars, sparkling above the treetops and twinkling below them.A drop of sweat dripped from his chin, pooling in his collar."Viper," a voice called out, startling him so much that he nearly dropped the book. "Are you still asleep? It's time for you to wake up."
"Wake up!" he snapped, sitting up and wiping the sweat from his face with his sleeve. "I don't need to be told what to do. I'm not a child.I don't need you to tell me what to do." He looked around, making sure no one was watching before he flipped the page, his eyes first light falling on the words: The End. "Oh, good. You gave me the last page, so I don't have to read this garbage anymore.Now I can go back to sleep."
"You're going to have to face the truth, my boy," the voice said, taunting him. "Your mother and I have been searching for you for weeks. We thought you were dead and that the book would lead us to you. But it was a ruse. You hid yourself well, my boy.But I found you in the end."
"You found me?" he asked, looking back down at the book, the words now readable. " My boy' is a bit much, don't you think? I'm twenty-one, not twelve.